FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUBE 107 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE FIRE PLOW 



Making fire by rubbing the stick corresponding to the drill to and 

 fro in a groove in the flat surface of the hearth is called the plowing 

 method. It belongs to the group of localized fire-making arts, which 

 will be discussed in turn. The spread of the Polynesians over a 

 vast ocean-island area has indeed carried the plowing method far, 

 but as this migration is comparatively recent, it is seen that the 

 mode goes back to the ongin locus in the East Indes, an area char- 

 acterized by a remarkable diversity of processes in the fire-making 

 art, some of them of limited distribution. 



The rapid spread of the plowing method is suggestive of the dis- 

 tribution of the simple drill through ancient movements of peoples 

 much anterior to the migrations of the Polynesians. As shown below, 

 the plowing method occurs sporadically among peoples and in local- 

 ities unconnected with the Polynesian migrations. In the present 

 state of our knowledge a great deal as to origin must be left without 

 explanation and with only the suggestion of independent invention, 

 which should be advanced as a last resom-ce. 



The Samoan fire making may be taken as characteristic for the 

 Polynesians. It must be added, however, that the rubbing stick is 

 clasped in the interlocked fingers in a certain way, is run at a low 

 angle at first to warm up and form the groove, and is then elevated 

 to about 45° for the final rapidly increased friction. The method 

 requires the most exact movements, as a movement of the rubber 

 too far Mill dissipate the small mound of wood dust in which the fire 

 rises. 



"In Samoa fire was obtained by friction, and the process is still 

 used when matches are not available, A man will take a piece of 

 dry wood, which is placed on the ground, then another small piece 

 is pointed and firmly grasped by the two hands. This is rubbed 

 backwards and forwards, slowly at first, until a groove is formed in 

 the log, when the rubbing is accelerated, until the httle head of scooped- 

 out dust at the end of the groove begins to smoke, when the operator 

 rubs very fast indeed and the action causes the dust to ignite. This 

 ignited matter is then placed in the middle of some inflammable 

 material until it bursts into a flame, and with tliis a few leaflets of 

 the dried coconut leaf are ignited. The exertion of rubbing the fire 

 stick is very great. Old men are not always able to get fire, especially 

 on damp days, and sometimes have to walk several miles to the near- 

 est village to get a light before thev can cook their food"^° (pi. 30, 

 fig. 2). 



•» George Brown. Melanesians and Polynesians: Their Life Histories Described and Compared, 

 London, 1910, p. 129. 



